SEEMLA

Sustainable exploitation of biomass for bioenergy from marginal lands in Europe

SEEMLA Project Grant Agreement no. 691874

Report of Seemla international conference D7.10

16th January 2019

I. About the SEEMLA project The aim of the Horizon 2020-funded “Sustainable exploitation of biomass for bioenergy from

marginal lands in Europe” (SEEMLA) project is the reliable and sustainable exploitation of

biomass from marginal lands (MagL), which are used neither for food nor feed production and

are not posing an environmental thread. The project will focus on three main objectives: (i) the

promotion of re-conversion of MagLs for the production of bioenergy through the direct

involvement of farmers and forester, (ii) the strengthening of local small-scale supply chains,

and (iii) the promotion of plantations of bioenergy plants on MagLs. The expected impacts are:

increasing the production of bioenergy, famers’ incomes, investments in new technologies and

the design of new policy measures. FNR will coordinate the project with its eight partners from

Ukraine, Greece, Italy and others from Germany.

Project coordinator Agency for Renewable Resources Fachagentur Nachwachsende Rohstoffe e.V. FNR Germany Project partners Salix Energy Ltd. SALIX Ukraine Institute for Bioenergy Crops & Sugar Beet of the National Academy of Agricultural Science IBC&SB Ukraine Legambiente LEGABT Italy Democritus University of Thrace DUTH Greece Decentralised Administration of Macedonia and Thrace DAMT Greece Brandenburg Technical University Cottbus-Senftenberg BTU CS Germany Institut für Energie- und Umweltforschung Heidelberg GmbH IFEU Germany This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 691874. The sole responsibility of this publication lies with the author. The European Union is not responsible for any use that may be made of the information contained therein.

II. About this document

This report corresponds to D7.10 Report of Seemla international conference. It has been

prepared by:

Due date of deliverable: 2018-12-30

Actual submission date: 2019-01-16

Start date of project: 2016-01-01

Duration: 36 months

Work package WP7

Task T7.4

Lead contractor for this deliverable

Legambiente (LEGABT)

Editor(s) Federica Barbera (LEGABT), Diego Mattioli (LEGABT)

Author Federica Barbera (LEGABT)

Quality reviewer Diego Piedra Garcia (FNR), Sydni Gonzalez (FNR)

Dissemination Level

PU Public X

PP Restricted to other programme participants (including the Commission Services)

RE Restricted to a group specified by the consortium (including the Commission Services)

CO Confidential, only for members of the consortium (including the Commission Services)

Version Date Author(s) Reason for modification Status

1.0 2018-12-01 Federica Barbera Request for contributions from partners

finalised

1.1 2018-12-21 Federica Barbera Integration of contributions finalised

1.2 2019-01- 16 Federica Barbera Final version finalised

III. Background This deliverable “D7.10 Report of SEEMLA international conference” is mainly based on the

tasks as described in the Grant Agreement Annex I of the Horizon 2020 project SEEMLA (GA

no. 691874).

• Task T7.4 Dissemination and exploitation (Lead: Legambiente)

This task foresees the implementation of a strategy either aimed at disseminating to a selected

audience the results achieved within the project, easing the transferability and the exploitation

of the project results beyond the project partnership.

This Final Report consider the international event foreseen in Task 7.4, especially addressed

to experts and institutions in order to illustrate the project results and promote the adoption of

a common EU methodology for assessment and selection of Marginal Lands.

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Content

I. About the SEEMLA project ....................................................................................... 2

II. About this document ................................................................................................. 3

III. Background .............................................................................................................. 4

1. General overview ..................................................................................................... 6

1.1 Minutes the Seemla final conference ...................................................................... 10

ANNEX I: Save the Date .................................................................................................... 13

ANNEX II: Agenda ............................................................................................................. 14

ANNEX III: Pictures ............................................................................................................ 16

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1. General overview

The last dissemination event foreseen by the SEEMLA project was related to the organization of an international conference addressed to an audience of experts, both from the scientific and institutional world, with the aim of communicating the results achieved to a wider audience. It was also decided that this could be an interesting opportunity to involve other European projects whose objectives are linked to the theme of renewable energy in order to exchange good practices and the know-how acquired during the implementation of the project.

Thus, the SEEMLA final event was split into two different parts:

In the morning of 20th November the SEEMLA final conference was held to share the results of the project with a broad group of attending stakeholders (scientists, farmers, foresters, policy decision makers, etc.). In the afternoon of 20th November and all of 21st November a joint SEEMLA and ADVANCEFUEL workshop took place, involving several Horizon 2020 funded projects. During the final conference the “SEEMLA Approach” was presented. This approach consists of an integrated set of environmental, ecological, social, economic, and biophysical criteria. It contributes to converting degraded and marginal lands to the cultivation of biomass for the production of bioenergy. The SEEMLA’s final conference began with a presentation by Maria Georgiadou (Senior Policy Officer - General Directorate of Research and Innovation of the European Commission), who gave an overview about current and future R&D policy support regarding advanced biofuels and bioenergy. She positively acknowledged the cooperative effort of all the participating projects, and encouraged the project representatives to continue this form of collaboration, which helps in harmonizing results as well as developing synergies.

Afterwards, SEEMLA’s coordinator and chair of the event, Diego Piedra-Garcia (FNR), introduced the project.

Then, the SEEMLA project team showcased their main results by presenting the project pilot cases in Germany, Greece and Ukraine. This was done by describing their specific approaches regarding the use of marginal lands for biomass production. They highlighted opportunities and potentials, as well as the challenges involved in the use of marginal lands – particularly with a view to ecological and socio-economic impacts. Additionally, the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) and the SEEMLA GIS tool were presented, initiating a productive discussion between stakeholders (see list of presentations below).

Mr. Diego Mattioli, representing Legambiente onlus, concluded this session by underlining the importance of the exploitation of biomass in a sustainable way. Sustainability has to be considered as a key word for the energy transition process: indeed, the exploitation of biomass has to valorize and not interfere with the ecosystem function and services, particularly in relation to mitigation and adaptation to climate change and it has to guarantee the preservation of the biodiversity and existing habitats in the marginal lands concerned.

Contributions

1. Maria Georgiadou (Senior Policy Officer, European Commission – DG Research & Innovation) EC research and innovation policies for advanced biofuels and bioenergy

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2. Diego Piedra-Garcia (FNR, Germany) Sustainable exploitation of biomass for bioenergy from marginal lands and its contribution to mitigate the risk of competition between bio resources and food security

3. Vadym Ivanina (Institute of Bioenergy Crops and Sugar Beet, Ukraine)

Understanding Marginal Land – challenges and expectation

4. Fotis Kiourtsis and & Dimitris Keramitzis (DAMT, Greece); Werner Gerwin (BTU CS, Germany), Iryna Gnap, (IBC&SB, Salix Energy, Ukraine) Bioenergy production on MagL in pilot cases: reports from the Ukrainian, Greek and German case study sites

5. Nils Rettenmaier (Institute for Energy and Environmental Research, IFEU, Germany) How environmentally and socio-economically sustainable is biomass for bioenergy from marginal lands?

6. Despoina Vlachaki, (Democritus University of Thrace, Greece)

SEEMLA approach development: the GIS application for MagL types availability

7. Diego Piedra-Garcia (FNR, Germany) Policy recommendations for biomass production on Marginal Lands (MagL): the SEEMLA approach

During the afternoon, the joint SEEMLA and ADVANCEFUEL workshop brought together a number of other relevant topics related to European projects and relevant stakeholders, to discuss innovative cropping systems and the supply chains for lignocellulosic biomass.

MAGIC, GRACE, FORBIO, BECOOL, uP- running, and LIBBIO, are all Horizon 2020 funded projects that presented their results and specific case studies at the conference. The workshop was led by the ADVANCEFUEL partners Philipp Grundmann, Sonja Germer, and Katharina Sailer from Leibniz Institute for Agricultural Engineering and Bioeconomy (ATB).

ADVANCEFUEL’s coordinator, Kristin Sternberg (FNR), welcomed the participants to the workshop and gave a short introduction to the project. She highlighted the fact that this particular section of the workshop included eight European project partners working together in order to achieve results on shared issues.

The representatives from the contributing other projects briefly presented their projects and specific case studies. After the presentations, three interactive sessions were carried out on the following topics:

1. Cost reduction versus impact on the environment; 2. Success stories and failures regarding lignocellulosic biomass value chains; 3. Feedstock for advanced biofuels: market opportunities and constraints.

The topics were discussed in smaller groups involving specific analyses (in terms of strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats) of the selected scenarios. The results were subsequently presented to and then discussed with the entire group.

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Contributions

1. Philipp Grundmann, (ATB, Germany) Welcome & Introduction

2. Kristin Sternberg (FNR, Germany) Introduction to the ADVANCEFUEL project

3. Cosette Khawaja (WIP, Germany) FORBIO – Fostering sustainable feedstock production for advanced biofuels on underutilised land in Europe

4. Efi Alexopoulou, Center for Renewable Energy Sources (CRES, Greece) MAGIC – Highlights from case studies on marginal lands

5. Walter Zegada-Lizarazu (University of Bologna, Italy) BECOOL – Brazil-EU Cooperation for Development of Advanced Lignocellulosic Biofuels

6. Rob van Haren (Hanze University of Applied Sciences, the Netherlands) LIBBIO – Lupinus mutabilis for increased biomass from marginal lands and value for BIOrefineries

7. Andreina Romano (DARE, Italy) UP-RUNNING – Success cases for mobilization of wood from agricultural prunings

8. Moritz Wagner (University Hohenheim, Germany) GRACE – GRowing Advanced industrial Crops on marginal lands for bioRefineries

9. Philipp Grundmann & Katharina Sailer (ATB, Germany) Interactive session introduction

This unique workshop was a collaborative effort of eight relevant topic-related European projects with numerous external stakeholders. The participants gave positive feedback and were very satisfied with this mutual exchange of experiences.

Participants

A total of 56 participants attended the SEEMLA final conference and 44 people attended the joint SEEMLA and ADVANCEFUEL workshop. Besides the consortium, the target groups of the event were: - Academic and scientific sector: The Leibniz Institute for Agricultural Engineering and Bioeconomy, the Imperial College London, The Institute for Advanced Sustainability Studies (IASS), Scientific Engineering Centre "Biomass", Utrecht University, Yncréa, University of Hohenheim, AIESEC, CIRCE, ECN part of TNO, ULB, Hanze University AS, University of Bologna, Chalmers University of Technology, Liege University, University for Sustainable Development Eberswalde - Institutions and experts: European Commission, Greenovate! Europe, Bioenergy Europe, SVEBIO - Public bodies: The Centre for Renewable Energy Sources and Saving (CRES), Leibniz Institute for Agricultural Engineering and Mostaloy Holdings Limited, WIP Renewable Energies, NL Platform

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Sustainable Biofuels, GreenMatterz sprl, Color&Brain, ValBiom, Total, Bios Agrosystems, IBB Netzwerk GmbH - Media and NGOs: Revolve, Can

Figure 1: according to the event registration list, the conference’s participants came from a wide array of nations.

Table 1- Participants from the SEEMLA Consortium who attended the event

Name Partner

Diego Piedra-Garcia FNR

Sydni Gonzalez FNR

Dimitrios Keramitzis DAMT

Fotis Kiourtsis DAMT

Anastasia Bikou DAMT

Spyros Galatsidas DUTH

Nikos Gounaris DUTH

Desponia Vlachaki DUTH

Oleksandr Hanzhenko IBC&SB

Vadym Ivanina IBC&SB

Nils Rettenmaier IFEU

Iryna Gnap SALIX

Diego Mattioli Legambiente

Consuelo Benedetti Legambiente

Werner Gerwin BTU

Frank Repmann BTU

Dirk Freese BTU

All presentations are available for the consortium on Smartsheet.com, as well as participants lists and all other media that are related to the project meeting, i.e. photos, etc.

Parcipant's Nationality

Germany Belgium United Kindom Greece

The Netherlands France Italy Ukraine

Sweden Spain Africa (Kenya & Niger)

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1.1 Minutes of the SEEMLA final conference

EC research and innovation policies for advanced biofuels and bioenergy Maria Georgiadou (Senior Policy Officer, European Commission – DG Research & Innovation) Maria Georgiadou began the conference with a detailed presentation about how the European Commission supports research and innovation in the advanced biofuels and bioenergy sectors. Figure 2 gives an impression from her presentation and shows the amount of “Secure Clean and Efficient Energy” funding for Horizon 2020 projects and its respective allocation by country amongst the participating countries. The overall objectives determined in this presentation were:

- To reinvigorate global efforts in clean energy innovation. - Develop and scale breakthrough technologies and substantial cost reductions between

Mission Innovation members. - Doubling the amount of public clean energy research & development investment over the

next five years between Mission Innovation members. Conclusions: Collaboration across the EU and internationally is key. Understanding innovation potential needed at early development stages is pertinent to project success. Ensuring financing at later stages of development is necessary engaging both public and private bodies. Value added from social and environmental benefits should be associated to products. Communication and education is essential for the implementation of technologies. Sustainable exploitation of biomass for bioenergy from marginal lands and its contribution to mitigate the risk of competition between bio resources and food security Diego Piedra-Garcia (FNR, Germany) The overall objectives determined in this presentation were:

- The promotion of re-conversion of MagLs for the production of bioenergy through the direct involvement of farmers and foresters.

- The strengthening of local small-scale chains. - The promotion of plantations of bioenergy plants on MagLs. - Discussing “How to mobilize additional biomass?” - Discussing “How to minimize/avoid ‘food vs. fuel’ conflict?”

Conclusions: A set of specific indicators will be developed and implemented for assessing potentials for biomass production on MagL, as well as ecosystem services provided, like GHG savings or biodiversity by marginal sites and their valorization due to land-use systems. The project approach will be applied in four pilot areas, representing South, Central, and Eastern Europe. Understanding Marginal Land – challenges and expectations Vadym Ivanina, (Institute of Bioenergy Crops and Sugar Beet, Ukraine)

The overall objectives determined in this presentation were:

- Discussing the SEEMLA approach for MagLs definition and classification. - The scientific vision to key soil properties of MagLs definition - Two constraints of marginality indicators in bioenergy crops

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- The two definitions of MagLs: By SQR, Mueller et al. (2007) (SEEMLA approach), or by marginality indicators as separate criteria.

Conclusions: The current definitions of marginal land requires the development of new methods that can identify land that is marginal for conventional crops but not for bioenergy crops. As of now there are many uncertainties with the SQR methodology such as; Ecological criteria are not attributed to soil fertility and must be seen as individual factors, and the range of the SQR score is often indefinite in terms of bioenergy crop potential, are just some examples. Bioenergy production on MagL in pilot cases Reports from the Ukrainian, Greek and German case study sites, from presenters: Fotis Kiourtsis and Dimitris Keramitzis (DAMT, Greece); Werner Gerwin (BTU CS, Germany); Vadym Ivanina (IBC&SB, Ukraine) and Iryna Gnap (Salix Energy, Ukraine). The overall objectives/pilot cases discussed in these presentations were:

- The general plan of action regarding Bioenergy production on MagL in pilot cases utilizing the SEEMLA approach (DAMT)

- Application of Soil Quality Rating (SQR) for evaluating land marginality (BTU-Cottbus) - Presentation of the German case study sites (BTU-Cottbus) - Presentation of the Greek case study sites (DAMT) - Presentation of the Ukrainian case study sites (Salix & IBC&SB)

Conclusions: The establishment and monitoring of plots was absolutely successful. SQR has proven to be easy to implement and the SQR scores proved to be a reliable criteria for differentiating between fertile and marginal areas. The identification of specific exploitation practices was improved, in terms of preparation of pilot plots, plantation, harvesting and potential utilization pathways for each specific region. However, the presentations highlighted that they needed more study in terms of selection of species, varieties and handling. To improve the productivity and profitability of marginal lands, the crucial factors identified were the selection of species and varieties and also the fertilisation and irrigation system. The only deviations or technical problems observed were the weather conditions, which affected the establishment and productivity of land. All supply chain of pellet production were monitored and results improved productivity and profitability. How environmentally and socio-economically sustainable is biomass for bioenergy from marginal lands? Nils Rettenmaier (Institute for Energy and Environmental Research, IFEU, Germany) The overall objectives determined in this presentation were: Environmental Assessment:

- Screening life cycle assessment (LCA) according to ISO standards 14040 &14044 - Life Cycle environmental impact assessment (LC-EIA) - Overall Goal: Policy information on the environmental impacts of using marginal land for the

provision of bioenergy Socio-Economic Assessment:

- Life cycle costing (LCC) according to SETAC guidelines from the perspective of farmers - Evaluation of generated employment - Assessment of further relevant factors - Overall Goal: Policy information on the economic viability and contribution to local

communities in rural areas

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Conclusions: Energy and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions can be saved, however, at the cost of other negative environmental impacts and a high risk of biodiversity loss. Thus, no general ‘certificate of compliance’ can be issued for bioenergy from marginal land from an environmental viewpoint. It is clear that financial incentives will be needed. This offers possibilities to consider sustainability aspects in support programs. Bioenergy from marginal lands is more expensive than from standard lands and can involve higher risks. Even on standard arable land, cultivation of perennial crops is unattractive without financial incentives. Lower land rents can only partially compensate for this. The necessity of financial incentives revolves around cultivation of perennial crops on marginal land not profitable outside niches, and additional incentives as foreseen for areas with natural constraints in the CAP. Some advantages include: additional jobs, more added value, development of new qualifications, and possible long term profitability. SEEMLA approach development: the GIS application for MagL types availability. Despoina Vlachaki, (Democritus University of Thrace, Greece) The overall objectives determined in this presentation were:

- The SEEMLA GIS tool concept; MagL definition, MagL identification (regionalisation) - The SEEMLA GIS tool concept; SQR calculation, Spatial filtering, Spatial matching.

Conclusions: SQR calculation is determined by poor soil quality and rich hazard indications. Spatial filtering is defined as marginal lands available for biomass production and determined physical constraints and environmental-ecological constraints. Spatial matching is defined by marginal lands suitable for cultivation of bioenergy crops, biographical regions and ecological demands of the plants. Policy and administrative regulations for biomass production on MagL for bioenergy: the proposals coming from the SEEMLA approach. Diego Piedra-Garcia(FNR, Germany) The overall objectives determined in this presentation were:

- To find the most suitable policy tools for SEEMLA - To analyse the major aims of SEEMLA on this topic, that were summarized in the creation of

an attractive incentive programme for stakeholders (i.e. farmers/foresters to use MagLs for sustainable biomass production for bioenergy), in sharing experiences in each partner country internally and transnationally between SEEMLA partner countries and other EU Member States, and adapting the EU Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) to the SEEMLA approach and possibly find a way to adapt it to and to modify the CAP (e.g. ‘greening’, and other relevant legislation, like: European water protection, nature conservation, soil protection, nitrates directive and related regulations, frameworks, and financial supporting programs). Vice versa, another aim of this task was related to proposing new aspects from the SEEMLA approach to the CAP by supporting agroforestry especially in the vicinity of sensitive areas, for example.

Conclusions: the key opportunities of using MagL are related to the availability of large areas worldwide, as land degradation and ‘land grabbing’ are currently a global issue. The use of MagL can avoid and/or minimize conflicts in the ‘food vs. fuel’ debate: growing energy crops in MagL is avoiding a competition with regard to agricultural land use for food production purposes (ad hoc with long-term effect). Other three key opportunities can be: the increase of biodiversity (locally only), the creation of new jobs, and GHG mitigation. On the other hand, it is important to create a unified policy framework and an attractive supporting system for farmers and foresters using MagL (for bioenergy purposes).

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ANNEX I. Save the Date of the SEEMLA final event

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ANNEX II. Agenda

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ANNEX III. Pictures1

1 By registering to this event, participants agreed with the publication of photos taken at the event for project

communication purposes only.

Picture 1: Diego Piedra-Garcia (FNR, Germany)

Picture 2: Vadym Ivanina (Institute of Bioenergy Crops and Sugar Beet, Ukraine)

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Picture 3: Fotis Kiourtsis (DAMT, Greece)

Picture 4: Werner Gerwin (BTU, Germany)

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Picture 5: Dimitris Keramitzis (DAMT, Greece)

Picture 6: Iryna Gnap (Salix Energy, Ukraine)

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Picture 7: Nils Rettenmaier (IFEU, Germany)

Picture 8: Despoina Vlachaki (DUTH, Greece)

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Picture 9: Participants to the SEEMLA final conference

Picture 10: Participants to the joint SEEMLA and ADVANCEFUEL workshop during the presentation by FORBIO

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Picture 11: Participants to the joint SEEMLA and ADVANCEFUEL workshop during the presentation by MAGIC

Picture 12.: Participants during the workshop interactive session

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Picture 13.: Participants during the workshop interactive session

Picture 14: Participants to the joint SEEMLA and ADVANCEFUEL workshop